In the treatment of tooth cavities and other intraoral diseases, when the target treatment ends, the visits to the clinic usually also end. Treatment of tooth decay usually starts when the patient becomes aware of tooth pain, discomfort, or other symptoms. When the treatment ends, the visits to the clinic also end. This is the usual pattern. Therefore, even if there is other tooth decay, if there are no noticeable symptoms, in many cases it is left alone—the clinic is visited only after the tooth decay advances. Further, with such one-time visits to the clinic, a healthy oral cavity is not secured. Staining, swelling, loss, tartar, wear, salivary calculus, mismatch, and other issues for which there are no subjective symptoms, but which can be seen from the outside after often unnoticed by the person in question.
For the business operations of a dental practice as well, one-time treatment sometimes cannot by any means be said to be good in terms of profitability, but there were no means found which were suitable for dealing with this. For example, PLT 1 discloses a configuration of an electronic patient chart in which the entire rows of teeth are displayed on a computer monitor and which the individual teeth are colored so as to enable easy viewing from the patient side. Ease of viewing the rows of teeth is a requirement which is sought in informed consent, but even if parts of the entire rows of teeth are easy to view, for use for explanations of treatment, greater enlargement and configuration for enabling understanding of the purpose of treatment are required.
Further, PLT 2 describes a configuration in which a plurality of sets of intraoral image data which is captured in advance are displayed on a monitor screen of a computer. Furthermore, PLT 3 discloses a method of presentation by display of moving images and still images using a computer to as to improve the understanding of specialized terminology etc. as a tool for obtaining informed consent. Further, it is described that such a presentation method may be used for educational purposes in elementary schools, junior high schools, various businesses, retirement homes, etc. Furthermore, PLT 4 discloses fluorescent film which enables visualization of an X-ray image and a configuration which reflects an image rendered visible by a prism for capture by a camera.
As other patent literature relating to dental medicine, for example, the following such literature may be mentioned: PLT 5: Oral Cavity Washer Fitted With Videoscope; PLT 6: Intraoral Camera Apparatus and Method; PLT 7: Handpiece for Dental Examination and Diagnosis; PLT 8: Hand Switch for Intraoral Camera, PLT 9: Intraoral Camera With Built-in Display; PLT 10: Intraoral Camera Apparatus and Dental Mirror; PLT 11: Dental Camera Apparatus; PLT 12: Instrument for Periodontal Examination Use; PLT 13: Regular Examination Method and System; PLT 14: Apparatus Used in Dental Medicine Environment; and, further, PLT 15: X-Ray Image Detection System for Medical Use.